Episode 6: “And the award goes to…”

So it’s been about three weeks since my last post. It wasn’t intentional. I’ve been in what I like to call “writing boot camp”. You see, I’m working on a book that chronicles our journey from the time my son started acting. I have a self-imposed deadline so I’ve been focusing on that for the last 2 or 3 weeks. I’ve been trying to get to the blog because I have something interesting to talk about but, you know how it is.

A few weeks ago, my son was nominated for a Young Artist Award for his work on the show that he is currently on. The Young Artists Foundation was founded in 1978 by Hollywood Foreign Press member, Maureen Dragone. The purpose of this non-profit organization is to recognize and reward young artists for their contributions to the entertainment industry, which are regularly overlooked by the SAG Awards, the Emmy’s, and other more prominent award organizations.

We were excited to get the news but soon after, I found myself searching the internet, looking for episodes of the shows the other kids in my son’s category were on. Initially, I had no plan to do so but before I knew it, I was watching their shows, trying to compare them to my son. When I realized it, I immediately stopped and asked myself, What the hell are you doing?? We tell our son all the time that he doesn’t need awards and accolades to define who he is. Just try to be the best you can be. Set goals for yourself and work hard to try and reach them. You define yourself by doing that.

Well, that all went out of the window for me before I even realized it as soon as I heard that he was nominated for this award. I thought it was interesting though because it showed me how quickly one can get caught up in this industry. So much emphasis is put on things like how much money an actor’s movie made at the box office opening weekend, or who is going to win the Academy Award this year. When I took a step back and thought about it, I realized that at the end of the day, all of that stuff doesn’t really mean anything. Here’s why…this is all a form of art, which means that it’s all subjective anyway. Everyone is not going to like everything. Just because a movie doesn’t make as much money at the box office as was projected, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good. Just because an actor wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award for their performance in a movie, doesn’t mean that they weren’t great. If my son doesn’t win this award, (he did by the way) it doesn’t mean that he’s not good at what he does.

This was a great lesson for me and I hope that other parents in the business can relate. With everything that goes on in this industry, it’s very easy to end up on a path that will have you and your child looking for validation from other people, which can lead to decisions being made in an attempt to get that validation. It’s up to us to keep a proper perspective and guide our kids in the right direction. Stay focused on the work, the rest will take care of itself. Stay tuned…